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Nexus 9000 Series Application Centric InfrastructureOperating system · Cisco

CVE-2019-1803

MEDIUM · 6.7 CVSS v3.1 Published 2019-05-03
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
69/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
A vulnerability in the filesystem management for the Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) Mode Switch Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker with administrator rights to gain elevated privileges as the root user on an affected device. The vulnerability is due to overly permissive file permissions of specific system files. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by authenticating to an affected device, creating a crafted command string, and writing this crafted string to a specific file location. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary operating system commands as root on an affected device. The attacker would need to have valid administrator credentials for the device.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

Local privilege escalation vulnerability in Cisco Nexus 9000 Series ACI Mode Switch Software caused by overly permissive file permissions on specific system files. Authenticated administrator-level attackers can write crafted command strings to a specific file location to execute arbitrary OS commands as root.

MitigationApply the Cisco vendor patch when available; until then, restrict administrator access strictly, monitor file system integrity, and review admin account usage logs for suspicious activity.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Nexus 9000 Series Application Centric InfrastructureOperating system
Affected:all versions

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
High
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Confirm product is Cisco Nexus 9000 Series in ACI Mode
    Run 'show version' or 'show module' command to identify the switch model and confirm ACI mode is enabled via 'show system mode'
    Affected if The device is a Cisco Nexus 9000 Series switch running in ACI mode (Application Centric Infrastructure)
  2. Verify the vulnerable file permissions exist
    Check file permissions on the specific system file location mentioned in the vulnerability. Use 'ls -la <file_path>' or equivalent command to inspect permissions. If the exact path is unknown, compare permissions on critical system files against vendor baseline documentation.
    Affected if Specific system files have overly permissive write permissions (world-writable or group-writable) that allow non-root administrators to modify them
  3. Check for suspicious command strings in the target file location
    Examine the content of the specific file location where crafted commands can be written. Use 'cat' or 'hexdump' to inspect file contents for unexpected command strings.
    Affected if The target file contains unexpected or unauthorized command strings that were not provisioned by the administrator
  4. Review administrator account activity logs
    Audit admin account usage and command history via 'show accounting log' or equivalent logging mechanisms. Look for commands that modified system files or escalated privileges unexpectedly.
    Affected if Administrator accounts show execution of file modification or privilege escalation commands that were not initiated by legitimate administrators

A user is affected if they have a Cisco Nexus 9000 Series switch running in ACI mode where the vulnerable file location has permissive write permissions and could accept crafted command strings from authenticated administrators.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply the Cisco vendor patch when available; until then, restrict administrator access strictly, monitor file system integrity, and review admin account usage logs for suspicious activity.

Fix this in Nexus 9000 Series Application Centric Infrastructure Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
11.0 hours of engineering $1,970
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2019-1803 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data